If you would turn back with me to the gospel of Luke. We will pick up in our study over this past year, over 2022, in the gospel of Luke, and we will finish it up over the next several weeks. We’ll be in Luke chapter 19 tonight on page 878 in your pew Bibles.
The sermon title for tonight is borrowed from an article I read recently called, “The Cynic’s Dilemma.” The cynic’s dilemma is optimism. And as the writer reflected on 2022 and he looked ahead to 2023, he said that he began to feel something unfamiliar, and that unfamiliar feeling was optimism. Part of it was that he had logged off of certain forms of media for a while, and other parts of it was what he saw and felt were positive developments going on around the world. In his view, there were some things headed in the right direction, to which my impression, my reaction as I read the article was, “Yeah right!” Now how’s that for cynicism. I wasn’t quite as positive as what he took from 2022 looking ahead to 2023. Cynicism is stubborn. How do we break free from the grip of cynicism? Well we’re going to need more than just the occasional positive election result or government decision. We’re going to need more even than merely optimism. We need hope. We need hope to break the grip of cynicism.
Tonight, beginning this last section of the gospel of Luke, Jesus is making his way to Jerusalem, He’s making His way to the cross, to His death and His resurrection, and it’s the resurrection of Jesus that gives us hope. It’s the resurrection of Jesus that gives us hope in the face of suffering and grief, that gives us hope in the midst of conflict and rejection. It gives us hope even in spite of our own sin and failure which can be so many. And so hope is going to be the main theme of our study through these last several chapters of the gospel of Luke. And tonight we are going to see the certain hope that Jesus brings peace when there seems to be no peace. Nothing will stop Jesus from establishing His peace. Nothing will stop Jesus from establishing His reign. And the peace that He brings is beyond all comparison. It is “a peace that surpasses understanding,” as Paul writes in Philippians chapter 4. So tonight we are going to see that peace that nothing can destroy, not even death. And our outline for this passage will be on two lines. One is the retreat of peace. And then secondly, the coming of peace. The retreat of peace and then the coming of peace.
Before we read God’s Word, let’s pray and ask for His help.
Our Father, we give You thanks and we look to You as the God of all peace. We look to You as the One who has spoken to us in Your Word to direct us and to show us the way of peace. So we ask that You would give us eyes to see, give us ears to hear, hearts to understand and to believe what You say to us. That we would rest upon Jesus and upon His perfect salvation. Would You give us Your Spirit to open Your Word to us. Speak Lord, for Your servants listen. We pray all of this in Jesus’ name, amen.
Luke chapter 19, beginning in verse 29:
“When he drew near to Bethphage and Bethany, at the mount that is called Olivet, he sent two of the disciples, saying, ‘Go into the village in front of you, where on entering you will find a colt tied, on which no one has ever yet sat. Untie it and bring it here. If anyone asks you, ‘Why are you untying it?’ you shall say this: ‘The Lord has need of it.’’ So those who were sent went away and found it just as he had told them. And as they were untying the colt, its owners said to them, ‘Why are you untying the colt?’ And they said, ‘The Lord has need of it.’ And they brought it to Jesus, and throwing their cloaks on the colt, they set Jesus on it. And as he rode along, they spread their cloaks on the road. As he was drawing near—already on the way down the Mount of Olives—the whole multitude of his disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works that they had seen, saying, ‘Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!’ And some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him, ‘Teacher, rebuke your disciples.’ He answered, ‘I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out.’
And when he drew near and saw the city, he wept over it, saying, ‘Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. For the days will come upon you, when your enemies will set up a barricade around you and surround you and hem you in on every side and tear you down to the ground, you and your children within you. And they will not leave one stone upon another in you, because you did not know the time of your visitation.’
And he entered the temple and began to drive out those who sold, saying to them, ‘It is written, ‘My house shall be a house of prayer,’ but you have made it a den of robbers.’
And he was teaching daily in the temple. The chief priests and the scribes and the principal men of the people were seeking to destroy him, but they did not find anything they could do, for all the people were hanging on his words.”
The grass withers and the flowers fall but the Word of our God endures forever.
The Retreat of Peace
Peace is of the essence of Jerusalem. I don’t think it takes much cynicism to respond to that by saying, “Yeah right,” because Jerusalem has rarely known much in the way of peace. It almost seems to be misnamed in a way. Sort of like what we think about Philadelphia in our own country – “the city of brotherly love.” The sports fans of Philadelphia are known for showing much less than brotherly love to their opponents. If you look at the headlines in Jerusalem over the past several weeks, there’s not much about peace. Here are some of the headlines that I read recently: “Fresh Clashes with Haredi Protestors and Police in Jerusalem.” “Israeli Army Abducts 11 Palestinians Outside Jerusalem.” “New Rocket Fire from Gaza Follows Rising Tensions in Jerusalem.” There seems to be more about violence and strife and fighting. But Jerusalem literally is “the city of peace.” The Hebrew word is “Yerushalayim,” and “yeru” means “flow” or “direction,” and “shalayim” means “wholeness” or “completeness.” It comes from the same word, “shalom.” And so literally it is flowing toward or directed towards completeness, wholeness, peace. That’s what Jerusalem means as the city of peace.
And so when Jesus makes His way to Jerusalem, what might we expect Him to accomplish there? Peace. In fact, that’s what we’ve been told Jesus is all about. Zechariah, the father of John the Baptist, said back in Luke chapter 1 that Jesus would “guide or feet into the way of peace.” And think back about when Jesus was born and the angels announced His birth to the shepherds. What did they say? They greeted Jesus’ birth with the promise of peace. And even the disciples here in this passage as Jesus is walking towards Jerusalem, what do they shout? They shout, “Peace!” And yet it’s bigger than just peace for Jerusalem, isn’t it? Again, think back to those angels. What did they say? They said, “Glory to God in the highest! On earth, peace among those with whom He is pleased!” And the disciples, did you notice in verse 38, “Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!” In other words, Jesus comes to bring peace not just to Jerusalem but for the whole heavens and the earth. Jesus comes to bring peace for the whole creation.
But that’s not at all what it looks like. For one thing, when Jesus enters into Jerusalem, it’s not as one who has won a great military victory. He is coming to Jerusalem not as one who has conquered the enemy’s armies. He is not coming to a great hero’s welcome. Did y’all see what happened a few weeks ago, months ago, when Lionel Messi and the Argentine soccer team entered into the city of Buenos Aires after they were victorious in the World Cup? It was wild. Some people think that there were up to 5 million people that were packed into the city streets and the squares in Buenos Aires and they were hanging from everywhere. Hanging from traffic lights, they crammed onto bridges and hanging over balconies. They were cheering and they were dancing and they were waving their flags. And in fact, it became so dangerous and so packed that at one point the team had to abandon their bus from the victory parade and be escorted out by helicopters.
Nothing like that is happening in Luke chapter 19. We call this – and your Bibles may even have titles with each section – and we call this “The Triumphal Entry,” but it’s really not. Yes, His disciples, verse 37, they “rejoice and they praise God with a loud voice,” but look at the bigger picture of what’s going on here in this passage. Nobody came out to receive Jesus. Nobody came out to usher Him into the city. He had to make the plans all for Himself. He had to orchestrate the events to come together in order for Him to ride into the city. And He didn’t come in riding on an impressive horse or a chariot cavalcade. No, He came in on a colt. He came in on a young animal. We’re told in Matthew’s gospel that Jesus came in on a donkey. He came in on a beast of burden, not some impressive war horse or regal mount from the king’s stable.
And what was the response of the people as He came? The response from the people who were not His disciples, it was, “Teacher, rebuke Your disciples.” It was, “Tell them to cut out this nonsense.” Now we don’t know that this happened, but some people have suggested that at the same time Jesus is coming into Jerusalem there was somebody else who was coming into the city from the opposite direction. Pontius Pilate normally would have been based in the city of Caesarea, but he was brought into Jerusalem on certain occasions when he was needed. And the week of Passover was one of those occasions when he was needed in the city of Jerusalem. Why was that? It’s because the city became so packed with people who were coming to the feast, that the feast became an opportune time for an elevated threat for civil unrest or even for insurrection. And so Pilate, if he was entering into Jerusalem at the same time that Jesus entered into Jerusalem, it would have looked totally different. He would have entered with a cavalry of horses and foot soldiers, armor, helmets, weapons, banners, “the sun glinting on metal and gold,” as one historian put it.
But that’s not what it’s like for Jesus. If anything, Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem is something of a parody of a Roman triumph. This is not Jesus coming in elevation and exaltation. It’s Jesus coming in lowliness. He’s coming in obscurity. This is Jesus coming to Jerusalem humble and mounted on a donkey. Jesus is not coming as the one who has accomplished peace for Jerusalem. And by the way, why was Pilate needed in Jerusalem? It’s because Jerusalem was more often than not a headache for the Roman governors. It was not a prestigious post for government officials. It was a place that was known for its volatility. In other words, it was a place that was known as not being a city of peace. And that was not going to change anytime soon in the days in the near future. Because what do we find at Jesus enters the city? He drew near, He saw it, and what did He do? He wept and He said that the people there had no idea about the things that make for peace.
And because of that, we’re told that on the horizon, that the days ahead were going to be difficult days. There were devastating days to come for the city of Jerusalem. Look at verse 43. It says, “For the days will come upon you, when your enemies will set up a barricade around you and surround you and hem you in on every side and tear you down to the ground, you and your children within you.” What’s Jesus talking about there? He’s talking about the coming destruction of Jerusalem that would take place in 70 AD. And it was awful. Just listen to what the historian, Josephus, said about the events of 70 AD. He said that, “Around the altar, the heap of corpses grew higher and higher while down the sanctuary steps poured a river of blood and the bodies of those killed at the top slithered to the bottom. And such were the height of the hill and the vastness of the blazing building that the entire city seemed to be on fire.” And then there was the noise. There was the noise that came from the city. Some of it was, he says, “Nothing could be imagined more shattering or more horrifying. There was the war cry of the Roman legions as they converged. There were the yells of the resistance as they were encircled by fire and sword and then the panicked flight of the people cut off into the arms of the enemy and their shrieks as they met their end.” It’s chilling. It’s chilling to read about the events of the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD. And in the end, Jerusalem was raised to the ground. “They will not leave one stone upon another,” Jesus says in verse 44, “because you did not know the time of your visitation.”
Just stop to let that sink in a little bit. That Jesus is coming to bring peace, His announcement everywhere is that He is coming to bring peace – peace on earth, peace in heaven, glory to God in the highest. And that peace includes the destruction of Jerusalem. It includes no peace in the city of peace. And that’s all a part of His plan of salvation because the people didn’t recognize who Jesus was. The people didn’t receive their King when He came into their city and they didn’t honor Him when He came into the temple. The temple was the place of worship. It was to be a house of prayer. It represented the privilege and the blessing of the presence of God among them; the place of God’s glory. What had they done? They made it a place of business. They made it a den of robbers. And when the glory of God in the flesh was among them, when the great High Priest and the Word of God ministered to them from the temple, teaching them daily in the temple – how did they respond? They wanted to destroy Jesus. Verse 47 says, “The chief priests and the scribes and the principal men of the people were seeking to destroy him.” When Jesus enters into Jerusalem, almost nothing looks like the things that made for peace. It seems a lot more like judgment. Judgment on the people of Jerusalem, judgment on the way of life in Jerusalem, judgment even on Jesus Himself. What hope could there be of peace? What hope could there be of salvation in days like this?
Maybe you look at the picture of your own life and you wonder the same thing. Where is peace? Where can peace be found? I was struck recently driving around Jackson and had the thought, “How does this compare with the Biblical accounts of judgment?” And some of the things that we see around us, how much worse would it have been in those accounts of judgment? With our crime and the disregard for human life, there’s recklessness, there’s crumbling streets, there’s messed up water system – on and on and on it goes. What is God trying to teach us? What is God trying to say to us? And I’m well aware that there are people here tonight, there are people among us that are plagued by emotional and mental burdens. There’s abuse. There’s injustice. There’s suffering and there’s tragedy. And if there’s one thing that we need, if there’s one thing that we really need, it’s peace. We need peace with God. We need peace with each other. We need peace within. We need peace with our creation. We need this peace that passes understanding.
The Coming of Peace
And so what can we learn from this passage? What can we learn from this passage about the peace of God that Christ brings? What can give us hope that there will be peace when nothing looks like peace? Well here are a few things, and I’m sure there’s more, but let’s look at four things from this passage about the coming of peace. One is that it’s according to God’s plan, it’s in Jesus’ control, it cannot be stopped, and that peace comes through suffering and death.
First, according to plan. One of my favorite songs is Van Morrison’s, “Tupelo Honey.” And Bob Dylan said one time that, “Tupelo Honey has always existed, it just took Van Morrison to bring it about.” Now I’m not sure what that really means but it kind of sounds cool. This moment, in Luke chapter 19, this event when Jesus entered into Jerusalem, it had always been a part of the plan of God. And through the prophets, He had promised that this day would come. In fact, over 400 years earlier the prophet, Zechariah wrote, in Zechariah chapter 9, “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your King is coming to you, righteous and having salvation is He” – how is He coming? “Humble and mounted on a donkey, a colt, the foal of a donkey.” Zechariah had promised it, he had prophesied about it, and the words that the people proclaimed as Jesus drew near to Jerusalem, those words were even older than the prophecy of Zechariah. Psalm 118:26, “Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord.” And don’t forget the prophecies and the announcements around the time of Jesus’ birth about this coming King and about the peace that He will bring. They were all leading up to and pointing the way to these events that were unfolding as Jesus approaches Jerusalem. Jesus coming in humility on the back of a donkey didn’t look like much, but God was fulfilling His promises. God was being faithful to His plan that He had put in place from the beginning of creation. And in the midst of unpromising circumstances, in the midst of opposition, this is God’s plan and He knows what He is doing. And that’s true in our own lives as well. God is working out His plan.
And you also notice that throughout this passage that Jesus is the one who is in control. It’s in His control. And David talked about it this morning. The self-control of Jesus as He approaches His own death and suffering as He approaches the cross. You notice in this passage where Jesus sent two of His disciples with the instructions to untie a colt and to say, “The Lord has need of it.” And what does verse 32 say? That those who were sent away, “They found it just as He had told them.” And when they followed His instructions, everything went just like He had told them. Did you notice that there’s repetition in these verses from verse 31 to verse 33? Verse 31 says, “If anyone asks you, ‘Why are you untying it?’ say, ‘The Lord has need of it.’” Verse 33 says, “The owners asked, ‘Why are you untying it?’ and they said, ‘The Lord has need of it.’” It happened just like Jesus said it would happen and I don’t think it’s an accident that in the Greek, the owners of the donkey are called the “lords” of the donkey; literally, “the lords of the donkey.” And it’s almost as if we’re meant to see here that here are the lords of this animal, the owners of this animal, and here is the Lord of all things. Here is the Lord Jesus Christ who is coming. And He has control over the events and over the actions that are unfolding here before them.
And it’s not just with the donkey either. When Jesus gets to the temple, it is He who is in control because He is the one who is driving out those who sold and He identifies the temple as His house. He says, “My house shall be called a house of prayer.” The other day I learned that one of our newest members is trained in choral directing. And it made me realize that we have a number of talented maestros in our midst, in our congregation. I think we all know where the best one is, he’s in the balcony on Sunday nights! We’re familiar with choral directing and orchestrating and that’s what we see here in this passage. There’s a sense in this passage in which Jesus is orchestrating the events. He is the one who is in control. He is the one who is directing the action and there seems to be almost a calm even in the midst of the storm that is coming. And what He’s doing, nothing is going to stop. It’s unstoppable.
Remember, Jesus had set His face to Jerusalem. It was His determined objective to fulfill His purpose and nothing was going to distract Him from accomplishing His purpose and His goal. And when He got there, when the Pharisees sought to quiet the crowd, they sought to quiet the disciples from praising and rejoicing with such a loud voice, what did Jesus say? Verse 40, “I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out.” You see, the earth itself would break out into praise if the people remained silent. And we may not think very much about the intelligence of rocks, but I think they have something to teach us. They teach us something in this gospel, don’t they? Like when one stone is not left upon another, we learn about the judgment of God. Or when the stone that the builders rejected, it becomes the chief cornerstone. We will find in a few chapters that they found the stone rolled away from the tomb. Why was that? Because the grave was empty.
Well what is Jesus saying here? He’s saying that there is nothing that will stop the praise that He deserves, even if it requires the stone work and the rocks breaking out into praise to Him. And then on top of that, the chief priests, the scribes, the leading men of the city, they wanted to destroy Jesus, and yet they could not. Verse 48 says, “They did not find anything they could do, for all the people were hanging on His words.” They were powerless. They were powerless to do anything unless God allowed it. And God’s plan was going to unfold exactly as it had been determined. There was no stopping it. His plan is unstoppable. In fact, not even death could stop the mission of Jesus. In fact, we could say that death is included and central to the mission of Jesus and that God’s peace comes through suffering and death. The peace that Jesus proclaimed cannot happen unless He dies.
And all those effects of sin and death that we have seen in this passage, all those examples of no peace in the city of Jerusalem, the rejection, the political unrest, the destruction, the hypocrisy, the hard hearts, the idolatry, all of the effects of sin and death that exist even in our own hearts and in our own lives, Jesus came and He came to absorb it into Himself. He came to take the penalty for sin on the cross that we deserve. He came to take on the wrath of God in Himself and to overcome the effects of sin and death, to overcome the effects of no peace by His resurrection. And that’s the only way to peace. That’s the only way that we can escape the pain of death, the only way that we can have our sins forgiven, the only way that we can know the blessings of God and all their fullness without interruption is by trusting in Jesus. And only by trusting in Jesus. It’s resting in what He has done in His death and resurrection. And because He’s done it, there is peace, and it’s guaranteed. There’s a certainty to it. That certainty of God’s peace through Jesus Christ is what Christian hope is all about.
Would you listen to these words from J.I. Packer? Packer says this. “Christian hope is faith looking ahead to the fulfillment of the promises of God in the sure and certain hope of the resurrection through our Lord Jesus Christ.” Then he contrasts it with optimism. Packer says that, “Optimism is a wish without a warrant, but Christian hope is a certainty, guaranteed by God Himself. Optimism reflects ignorance as to whether good things will actually ever come. Christian hope expresses knowledge that each day of his life and every moment beyond it, the believer can say with truth on the basis of God’s own commitment, that the best is still to come.” How do we know that? We know that because the peace that Jesus brings is according to plan, it’s in His control, it’s unstoppable, and it comes even through suffering and death. There’s a certainty to the peace of God through Jesus Christ, and that is hope. This passage teaches us that the certainty of the peace of God is what gives us hope. And so we are to be people of hope.
How does that play itself out in our own lives? Let me just close with this. Remember what Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount to His disciples. “Blessed are the peacemakers.” And His people are to be peacemakers. That could even be translated as “peace doers.” We are to be actively pursuing and working for peace and extending the peace of God to others in the world around us. I can’t help but think about the prophet, Jeremiah. Jeremiah in his message called out to the people of Jerusalem. He said that the false prophets, they said, “Peace! Peace!” when there was no peace. That’s very similar to what we see in these verses tonight. But what did Jeremiah do? In the context of, “Peace! Peace!” where there is no peace and there was more destruction to come for him, what did he do? He bought a field. And what did he tell the exiles to do as they were living in Babylon? He said for them to build houses and plant gardens. He said to “give your sons and daughters in marriage,” to “seek the welfare of the city.” In other words, he’s saying – what he did and what he said – was to live in light of the peace that God has promised and that He will bring about in Jesus Christ.
And so how are we to live in light of those very same things? How are we to live in light of the peace that Jesus accomplishes and brings about with certainty? It’s that we are to be peacemakers. Peacemakers in our homes and among our friends, in our workplaces and in our church family. And we are to seek peace in the people and the places that God has called us to and to live today, now, tomorrow, to live in light of that peace and with an eager expectation and a hope in God’s ultimate peace in our lives and in His plan of salvation. And then let’s see what that does to our cynicism.
Let’s pray.
Father, we thank You for Your Word. We thank You for the message and the story of Jesus and His life as He made His way to the cross and to death for us and for our salvation, for our peace. We look around us and we notice that there are so many things that could disrupt it and lead us astray and lead us into worries and anxieties, and yet we pray, Father, that You would rest our hearts in Christ and in His victory and His accomplished work on the cross and the peace that You have settled for us in all eternity. We pray that You would help us then to live today in light of that peace for Your glory and for Your praise. We pray all of this in Jesus’ name, amen.